Still, on the backends of last year’s disaster, 2024 has been a year about coming to terms with my mental health, surrounding me with the people I should be surrounded with, and moving my career forward. I did a lot of building, did a lot of changing, and finally didn’t live in a flood zone. Fun aside, we almost had 5 feet of water in our home, had I not rented a moving truck and moved us out a couple of weeks before Helene, when hurricane season started! If nothing else, I am very glad we could dodge a second disaster.
Tried to get some games in this year, but with an RPG-heavy year that took most of my gaming time. Thankfully, streaming helps with that to knock out some of the smaller experiences, so here is the list I’ve put together for 2024!
10. Visions of Mana
Mana is back baby! After the Trials of Mana remake did well, they sent that team on a noble adventure to breathe life back into this long dormant JRPG series and they made an awesome game full of character and depth with that chance! And then, the day the game was released, they sacked the entire team! Gaming!
9. Mouthwashing
This is a 3-hour-long narrative horror game that is the game I’ve played the least on this list, but I have not been able to stop thinking about it. Partially the fault of the almighty algorithm, this space-faring story has a lot more going on than you would think. The “horror” isn’t things in space, on a planet, or anything like that, but rather the horrors that a human are capable of.
8. Bakeru
This is a love letter to the Goemon games, featuring yet another loud mouth, blue hair, blunt weapon-wielding character! Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is the best Nintendo 64 game, and I stand by that so I was quite happy to see a spiritual successor coming out for it. This one has a level-based structure, but every level is packed full of secrets to find, while the visuals and controls felt great the entire time.
7. Supermarket/TCG Shop Simulator
This might be me thing, this might be an ADHD game, but I can NOT get enough of these stupid shop simulator things. My obsession with these started with a game called Arcade Paradise where you run a laundromat with some arcade machines in it and grow from there, and this year the shop-style sim games went pretty viral. There is just something that heals me running a store, processing nameless customers, and seeing numbers go up. Then TCG Shop Sim came out and added opening booster packs and the associated dopamine hit that comes with that, pulling me even further in. If you vibe with it, these games can absolutely steal hours of your time but at least you are having fun with it!
6. Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2
Space Marine 2 somehow manages to have visuals so good they distract you from how absolutely fun this game’s hybrid ranged/melee combat system is. After slaughtering hordes of unclean ones, me and my friends would often stare up in awe at how well the SCALE of 40k was captured by this game. What can I say, this game was pure fun to play the whole way through and is still getting content.
5. Helldivers 2
Speaking of fun with friends, updates, and slaughtering hordes of enemies, Helldives 2 made one hell of a splash this year! I, along with many of my friends, was in the splash zone for it and put in tons of hours diving. The PSN debacle took some wind out of their sails, but it seems they managed to turn it all around in the end! I haven’t had the time to hop back in since they added the third faction, but that time is coming soon! As it was, Helldivers 2 came out of nowhere and made a really big impact in gaming and my friends circle, it deserves a good spot on this list.
4. UFO 50
What if Action 52 was good, a question dared to be asked by a group of indie devs. That team grew and grew as the years went on and on, and now it has all paid off. UFO 50 is an absolutely unreal collection of 50 quality games that hit just about every genre or niche you could want it to, while also creating some new ones. Arcade-type repetitive games, platformers, RPGs, experimental things, it seriously has it all. I was not expecting UFO 50 to enthrall me, but here we are.
3. Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth
Expanding Ichiban’s story out of Japan into an entirely new locale for the series, Infinite Wealth felt like a game with infinite things to do, even more so than previous entries in the series. I spent SO much time on some of these side activities like the Animal Crossing island that it even surprised me. Beyond just the sheer amount of content, Infinite Wealth expanded the already good RPG-styled combat the previous entry introduced and honestly leveled it up to 100 with more freedom to move around and experiment in combat. The new cast of characters was wonderful, and while I think the story had a little bit of faltering in the final hours leading up, it still managed to finish really strong! Can’t wait to see what this studio has for us next.
2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
It’s hard to find much to say about this that was not already said, and I almost feel like I’m repeating my #3 review again when I say somehow, the combat is better and there are more things to do than ever! Rebirth continues the story of the 7 Remake (Sequel?) series and continues to elaborate on one of the most beloved games of all time. I think this might be the peak of action-RPG combat at this point, and would love to see more in this style. I know not everyone loved the massive amount of mini-games in this, but they were always fun to me and generally managed to have some kind of worthwhile reward in it for me as well. Even the worst area in the game (Me? Gongaga.) is still held up by beautiful visuals, the combat, and the absolutely MASSIVE OST. Rebirth almost feels like a game with an unlimited budget with just how vast it feels, and that is pretty awesome to see alongside everything else that makes this great.
1. Metaphor ReFantazio
I am a Shin Megami Tensei man, and tend to enjoy the mainline entries in the series more than things like Persona which I do like, just not as much. Seeing the news that Atlus was letting the Persona team do their own thing not tied to that property filled me with excitement from the second I saw the announcement and after finally beating it I can say I am not disappointed in it at all. It’s rare that every aspect of a game seems to cohesively work together to present something greater than the sum of its parts but I think Metaphor has pulled that out, despite those individual parts being VERY strong on their own. I think Metaphor had a lot to say, and said it very well. I loved the front of the story, but I also loved that it was not scared to talk about more heavy-handed subjects on the same level of importance given to “THE BAD GUY IS GONNA DO BAD THINGS” RPG stuff. The cast of characters was amazing, and the world was so full of life and wonder, it gave me an AMAZING iteration of a job system with the Archetypes and I just find myself at that point where I have a hard time doing anything BUT gush about this game. Metaphor ReFantazio is my 2024 Game of the Year and it fully deserves it standing shoulder to shoulder with some amazingly heavy hitters.
